In July 1969, Penske and Sears signed an agreement where Sears got to use Penske's name forcertain automotive parts sold through its retail stores. These were mostly things like timing lights,dwell meters and associated items related to tune-ups. One unusual thing that also got Penske'sname on it was a floor shifter. The Penske shift handle and box seen below are from the collectionof Robert Lodewyk and they are a seldom seen item. The shift lever was on the shifter body of aHurst Competition Plus when Robert bought it but he is not certain if the Hurst unit is what Searswas truly selling. Anybody know for sure?

Iím new here, Just an AMC nerd from Wisconsin. This TA site is literally my favorite site on the web so I joined mostly to say thank you all for posting what is the best TransAm racing information on the entire inter-web.

I know a few of you from other sites web sites like crazyamc, and Klvn8r.

I am fortunate enough to own a 69 Javelin TA hood made from the original molds, Thatís about the only rarity I own, for now:)

The rest of my Javelin is mostly just a nice street car with suspension changes that were done to the TA cars at the time like a Panhard bar, higher rate springs, boxed control arms, brake upgrades and things like that. It works amazingly well.

Thanks for signing up here and for the compliments about the Trans-Am forum. It is nice to get feedback and know that people are reading and enjoying this stuff. You've got a nice looking car there and I always liked that dark green color. It's interesting to know that somebody still has the old molds for those Javelin T/A hoods. They supposedly made 1000 of them back in the day but where did they all go???

Thank you, itís a fun car to own and drive. Itís a very obscure piece and I am lucky to have it. I find it interesting that when I go to shows, even AMC shows, nobody has any idea what it is. The knowledgeable TA racing crowd is a small group.

Lots of rumors and hearsay floating around about these things. From what I know, nowhere near that number were made. Itís actually fun to hear all the theories. I think if 1,000 were made, they would turn up from time to time, they never do. There was also a bolt on version created.It can be seen on pictures of the Trippin' the Lights/Sherrif of Nottingham SuperStock AMX.

Now if someone will sell me an appropriate Traco intake to go under it...

Not sure where this belongs, and maybe it has been discussed before, but I would like to know if the factory cars (and some independants) used one engine for qualifying, and then changed to a race engine set-up for the race?

Robert, it may have happened but I don't think it was very common unless you are talking about the '68 tunnel port Ford engines. But those got changed usually because they blew them up and not because they were a qualifier "ringer" engine. In Dave Friedman's book it says they went through as many as 6 engines a weekend (for two cars) when they were running the tunnel ports.